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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (644184)	1/31/2012 2:49:22 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1580041

Obama Bureaucrats Owe Billions in Taxes While Wanting to Raise Yours President Obama and Congressional Democrats have called for hundreds of billions of dollars in higher taxes on American families and small employers. Yet, there are thousands of federal bureaucrats who owe billions of dollars in taxes. Here are some of the most notable agencies: PDF Version Read more: atr.org

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (644184)	1/31/2012 3:07:04 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1580041

Michigan's Solyndra? 1/31/2012 by Jack McHugh michigancapitolconfidential.com According to The Detroit News, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm made a deal with a group of wealthy and politically connected individuals in Oakland County to use state pension funds to guarantee $18 million they borrowed to set up a film studio in Pontiac, essentially making the pension fund the “co-signer” on the loan. The “business model” for this studio was completely dependent on another of Gov. Granholm’s corporate welfare schemes, a subsidy program that paid up to 42 percent of film producers’ Michigan expenses. No reputable economist has ever defended these subsidies, which are pure “political development” programs, not economic development ones. Thankfully, last year the Legislature supported Gov. Rick Snyder’s recommendation to greatly scale back these unlimited subsidies, and instead appropriate “just” $25 million for the handouts. That is, we’ll still waste taxpayer dollars on them, but fewer taxpayer dollars. But not surprisingly, a business model that depends entirely on wasting the full, unlimited amount every year will have problems should the handouts become limited. And so it is: The project Gov. Granholm backed with state pension fund money is unable to pay its debt, which means in a few weeks the state employee pension fund will have to cough up $630,000 from money set aside to pay future benefits to retired employees. Unless Gov. Rick Snyder and the Legislature reverse course on scaling back the absurd film subsidies, taxpayers could get stuck repaying the balance of the $18 million loan. The plot thickened when Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, who has been working to reverse the scaled back program, said the following to the Gongwer news service: "A few years ago we told some Michigan investors that if they invest in an industry that we would back them. And we gave them parameters and now we've changed that. We sent several businesses away that would help recoup that investment.” By “sent several businesses away,” he means taxpayers stopped picking up 42 percent of film producers’ expenses. In other words, Sen. Richardville is using this default to lobby the governor and his colleagues to give more loot to film producers, insinuating that the state is breaking a promise by choosing to give away less loot instead. Sorry, Sen. Richardville, but it doesn’t work that way. The individuals who finagled a state pension fund guarantee from Gov. Granholm are big boys who understand that their “business model” was in fact a purely political bet, not a business one, and the risks involved are likewise political as well as financial. And now their political bet is coming up a loser. Well, too bad. Rule one: When a state is digging itself into a hole, it should stop digging. Preventing a loss on one dirty deal by pouring more money into another one is no way to run a state government.

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (644184)	1/31/2012 7:22:08 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1580041

They Have Islamist Fanatics, We Have Secularist Fanatics By Dennis Prager Jan 31, 2012 jewishworldreview.com Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism. Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other — for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public invoking of G0d. The Islamists impose Sharia law; the American Civil Liberties Union and the left generally impose secular law. The Taliban wiped out public vestiges of Buddhism in Afghanistan; the ACLU and its allies seek to wipe out public vestiges of Christianity in America — as it did, for example, in Los Angeles County, when it successfully pressured the County Board of Supervisors to remove the tiny cross from the county seal. A city and county founded by Catholics — hence the name "The Angels" — was forced to stop commemorating its founders because they were religious. This fanaticism has been on display most recently in the state of Rhode Island. This past Christmas, the governor, Lincoln Chafee, renamed the state Christmas tree a "holiday tree." Though Christmas is a national holiday, for the secular fanatic, anything Christian — or, as we shall see, anything that relates to religion or G0d — must be banned from public life. The latest expression of the secular equivalent of Islamism is the lawsuit brought against a Rhode Island high school, Cranston High School West, for allowing a banner, written by a seventh grader in 1963, to remain hanging on one of the school walls. An atheist student, along with the ACLU, brought the lawsuit and a judge ruled that it is unconstitutional for it to hang in a public school. To appreciate how fanatical the student, the ACLU and the ruling are, you have to know the words on the banner. So here they are: Our Heavenly Father Grant us each day the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers, to be honest with ourselves as well as with others. Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win. Teach us the value of true friendship. Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West. Amen The idea that this prayer violates the Constitution of the United States is as much a mockery of the Constitution as it is of common sense. Only a fanatic can welcome the removal of such a non-denominational, sweet, moral exhortation from a high school wall. America is indeed as endangered by the ACLU as the Muslim world is by Islamists. Defenders of the judge's decision point to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1962 banning state-mandated prayer in public schools. The parallel is invalid. No student is asked, let alone compelled, to state what is on the Rhode Island high school banner. But arguments citing the Supreme Court ruling serve only to confirm my argument: that secular fanaticism has been taking over America. The New York State prayer that the Warren Court outlawed 50 years ago was as non-sectarian, as morally uplifting and as inoffensive as the Rhode Island prayer. Here is it is in its entirety: "Almighty G0d, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." After reading that one sentence, it is intellectually dishonest to maintain that the Warren court's decision was not an expression of fanaticism. One would have to deny that there could even be any such thing as secular fanaticism. Indeed, if it could have, the Warren Court would have declared the Declaration of Independence unconstitutional for its citing the Creator. It is no wonder, then, that Alaska Airlines announced last week that it would no longer dispense along with meals its famous little cards with a verse from Psalms. There are Americans who think that we are a better society without a state Christmas tree, and without high school students seeing a prayer to be kind human beings, and without the Alaska Airlines attempt to elevate American life in a small — and, again, non-denominational — way. But the Islamist thinks he is improving Muslim life, too, of course.